Meet the Department Chair

Reynolds, Nedra

Let me welcome you to the Department of Writing & Rhetoric, which offers one of the only B.A. degrees in professional writing in the region. (In fact, if you live in Maine or Connecticut, you will want to check out the New England Regional program: http://www.uri.edu/admission/newenglandprog.html. ) An undergraduate major in Writing & Rhetoric is a fairly recent development in higher education across the country, and we are proud to offer a B.A. degree that combines rhetorical knowledge with collaboration, craft, textual production, and reflective learning.

Good writers are in demand in any organization or workplace setting, and that demand has increased as technologies for written communication expand. Our major will prepare you to write well in all situations: academic settings, the public sector, private corporations, non-profit organizations, or for your own pleasure or free-lance writing career. Your WRT courses will give you opportunities to write for specific clients or to partner with community organizations; in other words, majors write for and with real audiences. Our full-time faculty are active scholars and researchers in literacy, community-based writing, and digital technologies for teaching and learning. Together, we are nationally-recognized experts in writing portfolios, problem-based learning, rhetorical theory, and advanced writing course designs.

The 30-credit requirement allows you to double major in another area, and we strongly encourage you to do so. Many students will also minor in leadership studies, public relations, sustainability, or dozens more. Recent graduates are working at Hasbro, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and Schneider Electric, just to name a few, and several are pursuing graduate degrees in law, editing and publishing, health communication, and other fields.

Our undergraduate students have an added advantage of learning in a department that houses and trains M.A. and Ph.D. students in the field of rhetoric and composition studies. A specialization with the English graduate degree programs, rhetoric and composition is a popular and exciting area for students who want to pursue academic careers in the teaching of writing. Graduate Teaching Assistants conduct research, tutor in the campus Writing Center, and teach a number of courses in the Writing & Rhetoric curriculum.

We welcome you to explore all that our faculty and students have to offer you!